Environment and Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Environment and Health - Essay Example Furthermore, the measures to be adopted in the future, for ensuring the sustainability of the environment of this area, have been discussed. The development of cities, across the world, has been phenomenal during the past two centuries. In 1800, the proportion of urban residents was 5%, which increased to 50% in 2000, and is projected to reach 66% in the year 2030. However, a comparatively larger increase, in the number of urban residents is expected to transpire, with regard to the developing nations. Urbanisation is engendered by certain elements, such as industrialisation, lifestyle compulsions, and in order to circumvent political strife (Friis, 2011 , p. 11). During the latter half of the 1990s, it became evident that the ‘health for all’ initiative was not going to emerge successful, by the year 2000. This resulted in the renewal of the policy strategy of the World Health Organization (WHO). This renewed policy strategy was accorded minimal attention by the national governments. At that juncture, another issue was identified, which was being recognised as being correlated to issues of health. This issue was the deterioration of the environment. In order to address the issue of environmental harm, governments participated in the Rio Earth Summit. During the meeting, Agenda 21 was formed, which constituted a plan for sustainable development. (Sim & McKee, 2011, p. 5). On 25 November 2011, the Canterbury City Council declared an Air Quality Management Area (Canterbury City Council, 2011). It encompassed 17 streets of Canterbury. The first of these areas had been designated in the year 2006. The law mandates the declaration of such areas, whenever the air pollution of that area violates the objectives of air quality. This region has become home to severe air pollution. As is well known, air pollution is extremely harmful to health (Abreu, 2012). Several research works, such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of 2005, established